“…the state whose prospective rulers come to their duties with least enthusiasm is bound to have the best and most tranquil government, and the state whose rulers are eager to rule the worst.”
These words are taken from The Republic, one of the most famous works of the Ancient Greek philosopher, Plato who lived in Athens in the fifth century BC. Written in the form of a dialogue, The Republic depicts a discussion between Plato’s mentor, Socrates and a number of other interlocutors on the topic of justice and the character of an ideal form of city-state. While Plato does not feature in the dialogue himself, most scholars believe that he is using the voice of Socrates as a literary vehicle to present his own views. It is an impressive work of philosophy, bringing together a broad range of ideas on ethics, politics, psychology, education and the pursuit of knowledge into one overarching framework. Given that it was written nearly 2,500 years ago, it is truly remarkable how many of the ideas in The Republic remain relevant today.
Historical Background to the Republic
To understand the arguments Plato was putting forward in The Republic, it is helpful to first know a little about the historical context in which it was written. Plato was alive during a particularly turbulent time in Ancient Greek history. Only a few years before his birth, war had broken out between his home city-state of Athens and the other leading power of Greece at the time: Sparta.
The Peloponnesian War, as it is now known, was not a swift affair; it evolved into an exhausting and bloody conflict that lasted over 27 years. For many, it represented more than just a power struggle between the two leading Greek city-states of the time. It was a contest between two competing political ideals: democracy (represented by Athens which was governed by a public assembly) versus oligarchy (the political model of Sparta where a military aristocracy was in charge).
In 404 BC, as Plato came of age, Athens was finally defeated by Sparta and a pro-spartan oligarchy installed. The oligarchs only held power for eight months before democracy was restored. However, their reign was memorable for its cruelty and oppression, earning them the nickname “The Thirty Tyrants”.
It was not long after this political turmoil that Plato met the Athenian philosopher, Socrates who was to have an enormous impact on his life. In Plato’s eyes, Socrates was nothing like the other philosophers of the time. While they tended to win their arguments by using rhetorical flourishes that were designed to appeal to the crowd, Socrates was more interested in using his skills of reasoning to try to discover the truth of the matter. Determined to follow in Socrates’ footsteps, Plato decided to turn his back on a career in politics and dedicate his life to philosophy. We can only then imagine his devastation when, in 399 BC, his mentor was sentenced to death after being found guilty of impiety and corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens.
It is these historical events – Socrates’ death and the unstable politics of the city-state of Athens – that provide the backdrop to Plato’s Republic. Plato had observed for himself the deficiencies of both oligarchic and democratic rule. Under the former, the Athenian people had been oppressed and subject to cruel and vicious punishments. And under the latter, his mentor – the man whose intellect and wisdom he regarded above all others – had been put to death. These tragic events led Plato to believe that there had to be a better form of government, one in which citizens could live together happily and harmoniously, that was built upon the Ancient Greek virtues of justice, wisdom, and courage. The Republic represents his search for this new political order.
It is impossible to do justice to the breadth of ideas and arguments contained within The Republic. Instead, we will touch upon one or two key themes – namely Plato’s theory of human psychology and his theory of knowledge – both of which underpin his vision of an ideal form of city-state.
Plato’s Theory of Human Psychology: The Three Elements of the Soul
For Plato, the character of a city-state was inextricably linked to the character and psychology of the individuals that composed it. In what was an extraordinary contribution to understandings of human psychology at the time, he argued that the differences in individuals’ characters could be explained by the balance between three motives or impulses that existed in their minds. These were: (1) reason – the faculty that enabled people to calculate and make rational decisions; (2) spirit – the part of the mind concerned with reputation, status and ambition which gave people the courage to act or put up a fight; and (3) desire – the irrational, animalistic element of the mind which was responsible for people’s cravings and desires, whether that was for food, drink or sex. As Plato explained, if we were to think of these three motives or impulses in terms of bodily parts, reason would correspond to the head, spirit to the breast (or heart) and desire to the belly.
Plato thought that the happiest and most just individuals (i.e. those that would engage in the “right” sort of action or conduct) were people whose heads ruled over their hearts and bellies. That is, they made decisions based on careful reasoning, and the rational part of their minds was able to keep their desires and ambitions in check. Meanwhile, some of the less attractive human behaviours, such as ill-discipline, cowardice, ignorance and wickedness, could be explained by an imbalance or conflict between these three impulses. In particular, when desire became the controlling element in a person’s mind, Plato warned this would likely end up wrecking their life as they would become enslaved to the worst part of themselves (we can think of this in terms of various forms of addiction that play havoc with a person’s wellbeing).
Plato’s idea that happiness came from reasoned thought rather than the pursuit of pleasure and satisfaction of desires was a radical change to existing views at the time. But not only did he believe this theory helpful for understanding human psychology, it was also fundamental to understanding the structure and character of his ideal form of city-state. For in Plato’s view, the happiest and most just states were those that were ruled by reason i.e. they were led by people who cared more about the pursuit of truth than their own ambitions and desires. If greedy and ambitious men were put in charge – i.e. people whose impulses of spirit or desire were out of control – the likely consequence would be that they would use the apparatus of the state to further their own interests and material wealth. And the people they ruled over would inevitably suffer the consequences of this.
In Plato’s ideal city-state, he proposed that “Guardians” should rule over the people. His Guardians would be selected after being put through a rigorous education and testing regime which would both ensure that they were physically and mentally strong and that they possessed the right type of character. Only true philosophers – individuals that had a passion for learning and who lived their lives according to reason – would be admitted to rule over the Republic.
To ensure that the Guardians were not distracted by private interests (or their own motives of spirit and desire), Plato argued that they should be required to live an austere life. This meant that they would not be allowed to hold private property (no land, wealth or valuables) or have a conventional family (their children would be raised communally). Moreover, their meals would be provided by the people as their wage for their duties. His idea was that these strict controls would prevent the Guardians from abusing their power and would ensure they governed in the common interest of the people.
Plato’s Theory of Knowledge and the Allegory of the Cave
To be effective rulers, Plato argued that the Guardians would need to possess the highest forms of knowledge so that they could develop sound rules about what is admirable, right or good. A significant portion of The Republic is therefore dedicated to how the Guardians should be educated, and it is through these passages that we learn more about Plato’s theory of knowledge.
Plato thought that what humans could see in the physical world around them were just images or reflections of what was actually real. The true essence or nature of things, he argued, existed in a separate realm outside of the physical world – a reality beyond what our senses could show us – that could be accessed through philosophical reasoning alone.
To help us understand this, he asks us to imagine a group of men who are prisoners in a dark cave. They have lived there all their lives and their heads are fastened so that they can only look ahead at the wall of the cave in front of them. Behind them is a fire, and between them and the fire is a curtain wall which acts like a puppet screen. Men above the curtain wall carry stone and wooden carvings that throw shadows on the wall of the cave facing the prisoners. As the prisoners’ heads are tied, they are unable to see anything other than these shadows, and so they mistakenly believe that the shadows are the truth – that they are “real”. When the prisoners are released from their bonds and are able to climb out of the cave into the world above, they are too dazzled at first by the light of the sun and cannot cope with what they see. But gradually over time they are able to look around them and see the truth.
Image provided by 4Edges under CC BY-SA 4.0
In this allegory, the cave represents the physical world which is revealed to us by sight. The shadows on the cave wall represent the images that most ordinary people mistakenly think are “real”, and upon which they base their opinions and beliefs. And the prisoners’ ascent from the cave into the upper world represents the progress of the mind from the physical to the intelligible realm, where true knowledge of reality (not mere opinions and beliefs) can be attained via philosophical enquiry. For Plato, it was only the people that had made this intellectual journey that were uniquely qualified to rule over a state. They alone had the wisdom and knowledge to define was right, just and good.
A central problem with Plato’s vision was that once an individual has ascended from the cave and seen the light, they were likely to wish to stay there and spend their life engaged in purely intellectual pursuits. Recognising this, Plato argued that these enlightened individuals would have to be compelled to go back to the darkness of the cave to share what they had learnt with their fellow men and act as their leaders. In other words, they would be reluctant rulers who would see their participation in government as an unavoidable necessity. According to Plato, it was this lack of enthusiasm for holding a position of power that would make them effective rulers, as leaders who are eager to rule often do great damage to themselves and their societies:
“The truth is that if you want a well-governed state to be possible, you must find for your future rulers some way of life they like better than government; for only then will you have government by the truly rich, those, that is whose riches consist not of gold, but of the true happiness of a good and rational life. If you get, in public affairs, men whose life is impoverished and destitute of personal satisfactions, but who hope to snatch some compensation for their own inadequacy from a political career, there can never be good government. They start fighting for power, and the consequent internal and domestic conflicts ruin both them and society [……] what we need is that the only men to get power should be men who do not love it….”
The Enduring Importance of Plato’s Republic
The Republic is not only a wonderful dialogue, rich with ancient wisdom and insight; it is a reminder of our deep connection to the past. For in many ways, the Ancient Greeks were struggling with the same problems we are grappling with today: How to forge a society that is just? How to prevent tyrannical leaders that oppress the people? And how to place truth at the centre of politics? Now some people may find it depressing to think that, almost 2500 years later, we are still searching for the answers to questions posed by our Ancient Greek ancestors. However, there is equally something incredibly uplifting about reading Plato’s vision of a state where we can all live together, happily and harmoniously. It reminds us that an essential part of the human condition is the need to look ahead to the future in hope, and dream of something better. Indeed, it is perhaps by continuing to dream of utopian futures like Plato, that we can come up with imaginative solutions to the problems we face today.
Further Resources
Plato’s Republic is one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy, and is a standard text taught on most political philosophy courses. It is also listed as a key work in the Classical Greek section of our Lifetime Reading Plan. This Penguin edition of the dialogue – which includes explanatory notes and an introduction to the text – provides an excellent guide for new readers of this work.
If you would like to learn more about Plato and The Republic we would recommend reading An Introduction to Plato’s Republic by J. Annas. The BBC Radio programme In Our Time: Plato’s Republic is also well worth a listen.
You can find further video resources on this topic at our Mind Attic YouTube channel playlist